Fate of Missouri Death-Row Inmate in Hands of Supreme Court

Update: Without explanation, the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday afternoon denied Mr. Smulls’s petition to have his execution halted.

–

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday is expected to rule on a pair of petitions seeking to halt the execution of Missouri inmate Herbert Smulls, a convicted murderer who had been scheduled to die early Wednesday morning but was granted a last-minute stay in an order signed by Justice Samuel Alito on Tuesday evening.

If the petitions are denied, the execution could happen later Wednesday, a lawyer for Mr. Smulls said. Mr. Smulls, who is 56, was sentenced to die for shooting to death a jewelry store owner, Stephen Honickman, and badly wounding the jeweler’s wife in a 1991 robbery near a mall.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.